Good People Don't Strap a Knife to their Backs
by ayotofu
Summary: "Seaford resident Jackson Brewer is alive. After eight years missing and presumed dead, the now-twenty-four year-old has been found in northern Tibet." A lot has changed. Eddie and Kim are cops. Jerry is a sensei at the dojo. Milton works with the FBI in forensics. And Jack has changed more than anyone else-not that he plans on them ever knowing just how much. Eventual Kick
1. Chapter 1

**Good People Don't Strap a Knife to their Backs**

**A Kickin' It Fanfic**

**Characters: Full cast with a focus on Jack**

**Pairings: probably none, but with strong friendship for the whole crew**

**Genre: Hurt/Comfort, Adventure, Angst (buckets of it, I swear), and a smidgen of Humor**

**Rating: T for language and violence, might move it up to an M**

**Status: In progress (meaning I will need a LOT of motivation to finish it)**

**Summary: "Seaford resident Jackson Brewer is alive. After eight years missing and presumed dead, the now-twenty-four year-old has been found in northern Tibet. No word yet on how he got there or what could've happened to him..." A lot has changed in eight years. Eddie and Kim are cops. Jerry is a sensei at the dojo. Milton works with the FBI in forensics. And Jack has changed more than anyone else-not that he plans on them ever knowing just how much.**

**A/N: First Kickin' It fanfic (though not my first fanfic ever, despite the newness of this profile). There will be aspects of this which I will take from the CW show Arrow, which is based off the DC comics character Green Arrow (though what I'm borrowing appears in mostly in Batman comics, actually), so it's kind of a bastardization of a bastardization. That being said, you by no means need to watch Arrow to understand this story as I am only stealing one of their subplots rather than their main plot and will explain everything that needs explaining. However, if you want to watch Arrow, please go ahead, it's a ballin' show. I honestly don't know what possessed me to write for this fandom but here I am. No take backs! Anywho, hope everyone enjoys my slapdash fanfic~**

* * *

"Crawford, that report needs to be on my desk five minutes ago!"

"Just a minute, Chief," Kim said. She turned to her partner. "Eddie, what was this guy's name again? Kerry something."

"Kerry Yan, Chinese immigrant," Eddie said. He was leaned back in his chair, feet on the desk, eating a turkey sub. "Wait a minute," he said, righting himself and dropping his sandwich. "Hey, turn that shit up and shut your traps!" He pointed to the TV in the corner which perpetually showed the local news.

"—just in, Seaford resident Jackson Brewer is alive. After eight years missing and presumed dead, the now-twenty-four year-old has been found in northern Tibet. No word yet on how he got there or what could've happened to him, but he will be arriving in Seaford the day after tomor—"

"Crawford! Jones! Where's that fucking report?" Chief Richards stood at the doorway to his office, arms crossed over his chest. The Seaford Police Chief looked like the sort of man who would be equally at home on a Harley as he was behind a desk.

"Coming, Chief." Eddie snatched the paper off Kim's desk. Kim could only stare. "Move it, Kim. We'll deal with this later."

"Yeah," Kim said. She stood and followed her longtime friend. "Tibet," she said. "Fucking Tibet."

* * *

"Does he have any family? Anyone he can stay with while he readjusts?" the doctor said, leafing through the papers on her clipboard.

"No," Rudy said, "his parents are long gone and his grandfather died a few years back. The only family he has left is his cousin Kai and Kai..." Rudy sighed.

"Not a good environment?"

"Not in the slightest. But really, Dr. Johnson, I'm more than happy to have him stay at my place. I have plenty of room, and Jack's like family to me."

Dr. Johnson bit her bottom lip. "Truthfully, I've never had a situation quite like this before, so if Jack is okay with it and boys in charge green light it, that might be what we do."

"Can I see him?"

"Yes, of course. But," she said, "you should know: whatever Jack went through, it can't have been pleasant. I haven't seen this much scar tissue on one person before. He's got at least twenty fractures from these past eight years and based off where some of them are, I'd say he was tortured. Just don't expect him to be the same kid he was when you saw him last."

"God," Rudy said, rubbing his eyes. "God."

She squeezed his shoulder. "Go in whenever you're ready. I'll check on that housing situation."

Rudy stared at the door, breathing heavily. He raised his fist to knock, then let it fall to his side and leaned his forehead against the cool plaster of the door. He grabbed the door handle and started to turn it but stopped himself. "Dammit Rudy just do it. How bad can it be?" Squeezing his eyes shut, he threw himself into the door, turning the handle at he did so, which caused him to stumble into the room, trip over a plastic chair, and fall flat on his face. He groaned and didn't move.

A low chuckle across the room had him look up. A tall man that couldn't possibly be Jack stood by the window in scrubs. "I missed you, Rudy," he said with a voice that was way too deep. Rudy scrambled to his feet and faced Jack.

"Jack." Rudy gripped his former student's arms before pulling him into a hug. "Oh, Jack."

"Mr. Gillespie?" Dr. Johnson said from the doorway. "You're good to go. He'll just need to talk to the police before he goes anywhere."

"Thank you doctor. Jack," Rudy said, "how would you feel about coming to stay with me for a little while?"

"For how long, exactly?" Jack said. Rudy's face fell a little. "Not like that, I just mean... I don't want to be a burden or anything."

"Don't worry about that. Right now, you just need to focus on you. And to help you do that, you can stay with me for as long as you need, all right?"

"Okay."

* * *

"Here we are." Rudy opened the door and turned on the light.

"Surprise!" A large banner hung over the kitchen table, spelling out "WELCOME HOME JACK" in bright lettering. Below it stood Kim and Eddie, both in casual clothes. Kim had grown into a petite young woman who nonetheless went out of her way to defy her own female stereotypes. Eddie, on the other hand, seemed to have molded perfectly into the doughnut-eating cop archetype—an identity that he was content with. To their left, Milton was skinny as ever, with an FBI jacket on (he clearly wanted people to focus on the FBI part and ignore the "forensic scientist" and "intern" stenciled beneath it). Jerry was eating out of the chip bowl. But for some increased muscle tone, he didn't seem to have changed.

"There were a lot more people who wanted to come see you, but we figured you wouldn't want too big of a party," Rudy said. He took Jack's duffel bag. "I'll go put this in your room while you kids catch up."

Jack smiled. "This is great. Thank you."

"Jack! You're here!" Jerry said. "I didn't see you behind Rudy." He ran up and flung himself onto Jack. "Whoo! Man it's great to see you."

"If you didn't realize he was here, why'd you shout 'Surprise!' with the rest of us?" Milton said.

"I thought it was a practice run!"

"Oh, c'mere!" Kim said, pushing Jerry away from Jack. She threw her arms around him. "I missed you so much. I never gave up on you. None of us did."

Jack exhaled long and hard from his nose and pulled back from her. "I hear you and Eddie are cops now."

"That's right. I should be officially bumped up to detective by the end of the month. Eddie would be too, if he could pass the physical fitness test."

Eddie was affronted. "Hey! I like food, what's wrong with that?" Jack and Kim ignored him.

"You're pretty young for that, aren't you?"

"Please. My age is the only reason I'm not a detective yet. Believe me, I'm ready for this."

"I don't doubt it for a second."

Jack was passed around amongst his friends, each of whom let him know what was going on in their lives (Jerry was a sensei at the dojo with Rudy, Milton had graduated early and was putting his big brain to use by helping to solve crimes). It was the first time in years that the hands at his back were gentle and unassuming. For a moment, Jack allowed himself to believe that it could last.

* * *

The gang had all left eventually, promising to come back and check on Jack the next day. Rudy had gone to bed in his own room and Jack finally had some privacy. As soon as he was alone, he locked the door, grabbed his duffel, and slipped out the window onto the streets of Seaford.

There was a factory on edge of town. Jack used to use it as his own personal skate park; he was the only one who ever went out there, who even knew it still existed. By the end of the night, it was set up to function as his personal gym-slash-lair, complete with training mats, makeshift punching dummies, and a salmon ladder.

* * *

By the time he reached Rudy's apartment building, two cop cars were parked outside. His mouth ran dry and he took the stairs two at a time before bursting into the apartment to see a uniformed officer talking to Rudy with a pen and pad out.

"The hell's going on here?" he said. "Are you okay, Rudy?"

"There you are! Where have you been?" Rudy said, rushing over to him. "It's two AM! I've been freaking out over here. I thought you'd gone missing again or something."

"So you called the cops on me? Rudy, I just needed some air. Seriously, don't get so worked up about it."

"'Don't get so worked up about it?' Don't get—do you realize that you were missing for eight years?" Rudy said. "Do you understand that I thought you were dead? Do you get that?"

"Rudy, I—"

"Apparently you don't, because otherwise you would understand why it is that, after going to check on you and finding your door locked from the inside and you apparently long gone, I get a little worked up!"

"I'm sorry Rudy, I didn't think about that. I just needed to get out, you know?" Jack said, making his eyes a little misty and pinching the bridge of his nose.

Rudy slumped. "I know Jack. Just... tell me next time you leave in the middle of the night? Or at least leave a note or something so I know not to freak out, okay?"

"Okay." Jack nodded and yawned. "I'm going back to bed."

"Me too." Rudy turned to the patrol cop. "Thank you for coming out here Officer Jensen, and sorry for wasting your time."

Jensen sniffed. "Just glad he's alright. Hate to lose him a second time. You boys have a good night. Or morning, as it were."

"You too, sir." Jack heard Rudy say as he entered his room and shut the door (or at least, tried to—it turned out the lock had been broken in Rudy's state of panic and so in order to keep it shut, Jack had to prop a chair under it). He sat down on the bed which was way too soft to be real, he thought, and put his head in his hands. "Dammit Rudy," he said into his palms. "Why'd you have to care?"


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Kk, so thanks for all the reviews people! I tried to reply to all of them but I could not for the anonymous reviews so just know that I love and appreciate you as well! And I know I told a couple of you that I would likely be shooting for weekly updates, and that's still the plan, but I already had this chapter finished and I am an impatient, impatient human being so I'm posting it now. However, DO NOT EXPECT FOR OTHER UPDATES TO BE QUITE THIS QUICK. I'm coming down to the wire for my senior year and I have like twenty bazillion things do within a couple of weeks and so will likely not have much time for this story. So don't freak on me or anything, k?**

**On an unrelated note, how many of you would be annoyed/displeased in some way if I do not bring romance b/w Jack and Kim into the story? Is it a "make or break" thing for anyone? Let me know in a review.**

**So this chapter is where we first get introduced to many of the elements of the plot, including the bad guys. Any DC comics, Arrow, or Dark Knight trilogy fans may recognize them, so I will say this: I am using them for my own purposes, with my own interpretation. It may or may not fit in with their portrayal in other media. If you are not familiar with any of the aforementioned works, then this will be a bit more confusing for you but hopefully also a bit more suspenseful. Regardless, I hope you all enjoy chapter two, beta'ed by the lovely Baby Porcupine-Cute but DEADLY!**

* * *

"Listen up, worms!" Chief Richards prowled before the assembled officers, his steps taking on a particular rhythm. _Left right left pivot, pause, left right left pivot, pause, repeat._ The man had been SCPD's Chief for twenty some-odd years and never once had anyone considered firing him—he was the main reason why Seaford's crime rate was as low as it was (and it wasn't that low). Without Lionel Richards in charge, Seaford would go to hell in a handbasket, and everyone knew it. This was why the department tolerated his borderline-abusive tendencies; no one _liked _him, but he was a necessary evil.

"I'm sure you've all heard about the rash of assaults these past few weeks. Some weirdo with a fetish for leather thinks he can do a better job than the police at stopping criminals. Well. He's about to find out how wrong he is.

"The facts of the case are this: this vigilante first showed up twenty five days ago. He stopped a mugging in progress and left the two scumbags tied up to a lamppost, passed out from blood loss and needing to be rushed to the hospital. They barely survived. Since then, there have been four reported sightings of the 'masked crusader' and at each scene, there were casualties, courtesy of our new _friend_."

Kim straightened out her new Detective pantsuit. True to her prediction, she had been promoted about a week after Jack had returned to Seaford and three days after the vigilante had made his first appearance. Jack had been distant with all of them since the first night, utterly unwilling to talk about anything that had happened to him while he had been in Tibet (and seriously, how did he even get there? It was on the other side of the fucking world!) or about what he was doing with himself now. Jerry was helping him find a job, but Jack hadn't been any more forthcoming with him than the rest of them despite the amount of time they spent together.

"Have there been any deaths?" her new partner, Donna Tobin, said. Eddie was still a beat cop, so Kim had been assigned to Donna. The woman had been a detective for about three years now. Though she'd been the object of many boys' affections in high school, Kim couldn't bring herself to hate her even so: she was just too damn _nice._

Richards glared at her. "No. But that doesn't mean there won't be."

Donna leaned over to Kim. "If you ask me, this guy's doing us a favor." Kim nodded her agreement.

"Crawford! Tobin! Do you have anything you'd care to add?"

"No sir," Donna said.

"Good. Because this is now your case." Richards leaned over their desk and plopped a file on it. "I expect you to have this guy in cuffs in sixty days or you can kiss those detective badges goodbye."

"Sixty days?" Kim said. "Chief, no one's even given us a clear description of this guy yet, there's no way—"

"I can make it thirty if you like."

Kim opened her mouth to keep arguing before Donna clamped her hand over her mouth and said, "Sixty days. You got it Chief."

After Richards walked away, Donna pulled her hand back in disgust. "Did you have to lick me quite so damn much?"

"Did you have to cover my mouth?

"Apparently so, because you seemed determined to screw us. Don't argue with the Chief! That'll put you on the fast track to unemployment."

"Come on, you know this 'sixty days' nonsense is, well, _nonsense_."

Donna sighed. "I know. And so does Richards. But threats like this... how do you think he gets such good results?"

Kim didn't respond, so Donna picked up the file and started leafing through it. "Maybe there's some pattern to where he's been popping up or something. Here." She handed Kim a couple pages. "Get to work, partner."

* * *

"Hey man, you could come work at the dojo with me and Rudy," Jerry said, taking a bite of his barbeque chicken sandwich and smearing sauce on his cheeks. He then swiped his tongue around his lips to mop it up but a fair amount of it remained beyond his reach. "We'd love to have you."

"Haven't exactly kept up on my karate," Jack said, picking at his salad. "Don't think I'd be much use."

"You can relearn it. It's like flying a kite!"

"Riding a bike."

"What?" Jerry said, eyebrows raised and the splotches of barbeque sauce on his cheeks rising as well.

"The phrase is 'it's like riding a bike,' not flying a kite. And I don' t want to relearn it, okay?" Jack stabbed at a stray grape three times before he managed to pierce it with his fork.

Jerry stared at him. "Woah man, you okay?"

"No." Jack threw his fork down. "I know I said I didn't want to go back to high school, but... it's kinda hard to get a job when the highlight of your resume is 'missing for eight years.'"

"Maybe you could just take some online classes, yo. Just enough to graduate, get your diploma, you know?"

"Maybe. But I still need a job in the meantime; I can't just keep mooching off Rudy."

Jerry shrugged. "Why not? I do it all the time."

"Just eat your grease-ball Jerry."

Jerry clutched his sandwich protectively. "At least I didn't order a salad. Where is your manhood, man?"

Jack arched an eyebrow. "You're rubbing barbeque sauce into your shirt, dude."

"Really, Jerry?" Jerry said to himself, rubbing at his shirt with a napkin. "Shit. Well, I've got a one o'clock class, but uh, I'll see you later and we'll talk about this some more." He made to leave the table.

"Uh, Jer? You've still got some sauce on your face."

"Oh, no, that's for the ladies." Jerry winked, threw a twenty on the table, and then danced over to the door. "See you later!"

Jack tossed his own twenty down and followed him out, leaving behind his mostly-full plate of salad.

* * *

"Dr. Johnson!"

Pamela Johnson turned to see Rudy Gillespie running toward her at full speed. Before she could react, he barreled into her, knocking her to the ground and sending her clipboard flying.

"I was hoping I would run into you again," Rudy said, grinning.

"Mission accomplished," she said. "Now could you please get off me?"

"Oh sorry." Brushing his hands off on his pants, he offered her his hand and pulled her up.

"What's this about? Is it Jack? Is he sick?"

"Yes—I mean no—I mean, yes it's about Jack, no he's not sick," Rudy said, stuttering slightly. "Well, I don't _think_ he is, but honestly at this point I'm sure about anything regarding Jack. He's not eating much of anything, Doc. I wake up at three in the morning to him sneaking back into the apartment and then when I get up for work at six he's already awake. But," (here Rudy began to speak faster, his tongue tripping over the words as though he could not make it work fast to enough to express everything he wanted to) "he seems pretty healthy otherwise. I mean, no nosebleeds or headaches or anything. Not that I've noticed at least. But I could have missed something. But he really seems to be in good shape."

"Except that he's not eating."

Rudy nodded jerkily. "Or sleeping. Or smiling, laughing, or talking about anything important."

"It sounds like he needs to see a psychologist. Here," she said. She tore off a sheet of paper from her clipboard. "I know this man personally and he's great at his job. I bet he'd be perfect for Jack."

"This is great," Rudy said, taking the note. "Thank you so much."

"Not a problem. Feel free to come find me again if you have any more questions about Jack's physical health."

Rudy sidled up closer to her. "What if I want to come see you about me?"

"If you're sick or injured?" she said, a smile quirking at the edge of her lips and a hand on her hip.

"Yeah... or like on a date?"

She laughed. "Not likely. Take good care of Jack!"

As she walked away, Rudy said to himself, "She didn't say no, at least?"

"And by 'not likely' I mean no!"

"Dammit."

* * *

Nyssa al Ghul stood beside her father. Pru, a twenty-five year veteran of the League, lounged against the wall in front of them. "Owens and Z have not returned from their assignment," Pru said. She picked at her nails. "We must assume that they have failed and Malcolm Merlyn is still at large."

Ra's al Ghul was silent. "Were they killed in action?" Nyssa said.

"I do not believe so."

"They were your partners, yes?"

"Yes. Though their failure is entirely their own."

Nyssa roved her eyes up and down the middle-aged woman's body, taking in the well-defined curves with a coy smile. "I'm sure it is. And I'm sure you can see to it that they are properly punished."

"I will. Would you like me to go after Merlyn as well?"

"No," Ra's said. His voice was soft and barely changed in pitch. "You have your mission."

Pru bowed and stalked out of the room. Ra's did not move, did not even flick his eyes over to his daughter in the ensuing silence. "You clearly have a question, Nyssa. Ask."

Nyssa shuffled her foot. "What are you going to do about Merlyn?"

"I'm glad you asked." He stepped forward and turned to face her. "Malcolm is turning out to be more... elusive than I'd planned. I need you to bring back either Lance or Brewer."

Her eyes widened. "But they've been released. The code does not allow for any ex-member to be forced back—"

"Exactly. He won't expect it to be one of them, which is why you must do so in utter secrecy."

"But—"

Ra's did not let her finish. "Rule one, Nyssa."

"'All other rules are flexible for the greater good,'" Nyssa said. She sighed. "Whoever it is, they won't come willingly."

"No they won't. Choose wisely, daughter."

She had been dismissed. With a bow, she left the room to find her partner and make a plan. Getting Jack out of Seaford would be a tall order, and he would hate her for it, but she simply cared too much about Sara Lance to choose her.

* * *

The music from the clubs lining the street pulsed out into the street, shaking their car. Young women in stilettos and young men in overpriced t-shirts formed a line to enter the hottest spots in town, whereupon they would become visible as only vague silhouettes from the street. "Why are we here again?" Kim said.

"There wasn't any pattern to the vigilante's movements, so a random stakeout is our best option at this point. Hopefully we'll catch him in action." Donna took out her camera and adjusted the focus, letting out a low whistle at a passing group of boys in skinny jeans.

Kim harrumphed. "You just want to check out the hot guys."

"_Actually_, I figured that this was a hotbed for muggings and rape and the like, which our leather-bound hero seems to be focused on for the time being." Donna winked at her. "The eye candy certainly doesn't hurt, though."

"Of course it doesn't." Kim rested her chin in her palms and stared out the window.

Donna reached behind her seat and grabbed and sandwich wrapped in wax paper. "Here," she said, thrusting it in Kim's face. "It's good ol' PBJ, c'mon, you know you want it."

Kim shoved it away. "Peanut allergy, moron. Do you have roast beef?"

Donna put a hand over her heart and drew away from Kim with an exaggerated look of disgust. "I'm a vegetarian, Kimberly. I would never!"

"Well what do you have that won't kill me?"

Donna rustled around behind her seat again. "Potato chips?" she said, clasping a crumpled Lays® bag. Kim snatched it out of her hand.

"Next time," she said, stuffing a few chips into her mouth, "I'm bringing the stakeout food."

Oh yeah, this was going to be a long night.

* * *

Jack had forgotten just how loud the city could be at night. When he'd left, he was too young for the club scene, and now he just found himself disinterested. Still, he hadn't patrolled this part of the city before, and he figured it was important to get the message out that there was nowhere he wouldn't be willing to show up.

Jerry's offer to join the dojo was more tempting than Jack wanted to think about. But there was no way he could work that closely with his friends, _fight_ with them, and still keep the secrets he needed to.

A noise to his left alerted him. Looking over, he saw two figures, one of whom was clearly holding a gun in the other's face. Within five seconds, he had, pulled up his hood dropped from the roof, knocked the gunman out (actually, it was a gunwoman, statistically surprising but far from the strangest thing he'd ever seen) and was in the process of tying her up when he heard a shout behind him.

"Freeze! SCPD!"

Of course it would be Kim. The universe owed him nothing less.

At least he was wearing his mask and hood. In the dim light of the alley, there was no way she could make out any distinguishing characteristics. Without pausing, he switched from tying up the assailant to scaling the side of the building to his right and was gone before Kim had even thought to shoot. "Damn," she said, registering on her periphery as Donna cuffed the groggy would-be mugger and read her her rights.

Closer than she realized, Jack sat on the roof, echoing her sentiments.


End file.
